Perhaps so, but that would have provided only one channel. So even if a small UHF station had been built in Rutland, somebody would have built a CATV system anyway. Even back in the 50s, CATV systems were offering "full network service": all three commercial networks. They supplemented these channels by adding nearby independent and NCE (non-commercial educational) stations.
One UHF station obviously could not have provided anywhere near this level of service. And I can't imagine that three network-affiliate stations would have been able to survive financially.
Of course, it might have been possible to build three translator stations to retransmit the signals of three distant network stations, provided that some financial-support mechanism could be established. Such an arrangement existed in Darlington, Wisconsin for several years during the 60s and 70s: three UHF translators retransmitted the signals of the three Madison commercial stations. The translators were supported by "memberships"; although there was no way to prevent non-members from tuning in, enough members apparently paid their dues to keep things running.
But after the mid-70s, even membership-supported translators couldn't compete with cable TV. The company I was working for at the time built a cable system in Darlington in 1980, and the translators were shut down. AFAIK, they're are still sitting there up on the hill collecting cobwebs (although I once heard that the old transmitter shack made a good deer-hunting blind).
Neal McLain